Thrifty Thursday: Stockpile of Gifts

This is my "Gift Box."  It is not glamorous by any means, but it serves its purpose.  I started having a gift box a couple of years ago when my friend got married and moved away.  When we roomed together in college, we both loved getting packages in the mail- we called it Christmas in the mail.  Seriously, if a package arrived we had to do a Christmas in the mail dance.... Ok, maybe it was just me doing the dance, but it was still exciting.  So after she moved away we tried to send each other something (it didn't have to be big or expensive) in the mail.  I started buying several months worth of gifts ahead of time so that I would always have something on hand to send if I realized it was the end of the month and I had forgotten to send anything.

This box has morphed as I have started couponing.  It now contains lots of candles (bought for free or near free from CVS), lotions (90% off a Bath & Body Works), movies, children's books, ties, and pretty much anything else I find on a great sale.  I also have a card basket which is now loaded with cards that I got with the $5 off $5 coupon from Hallmark recently.

The benefits of this box and basket are incredible.  First of all, I am a self-proclaimed space cadet.  By this I mean I will actually be thinking about how someone's birthday is coming up, but I will completely forget to think about the implications of that (there needs to be a gift).  Also, I can often get amazing gifts for free or near free if I shop ahead.

Finally, my suggestion is that go through your house/garage and find some box or bag or really anything that can hold gifts/cards (I included a picture of mine so that you could see that it doesn't have to be pretty), and start throwing in some of your CVS finds and after Christmas sale finds.  It will save you the stress of worrying too much about gifts and will save you wallet some too!